As Lieutenant Governor, Steele Has Been Quiet in Dissent

By Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 1, 2006

In campaign commercials and appearances, Republican Senate candidate Michael S. Steele presents himself as fiercely independent, someone who would stand on principle against his party.

Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin has tried to link Steele to President Bush, but he has responded sternly in television ads: "Listen to me, Mr. Cardin. I think for myself."

But a look back at Steele's four years as lieutenant governor shows that he has rarely publicly challenged Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. on issues on which they have disagreed, such as the death penalty, teacher pensions and the minimum wage.

Instead, Steele said he has made his case privately, because, he said, "He's my boss. I know my role."

That deference to the governor has allowed Democratic critics to question his independence. "The lieutenant governor was there to support the Ehrlich administration. He did not separate himself," said Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince George's).

The show of unity is not something he would continue in the Senate, Steele said in an interview this week. As lieutenant governor, he has employed a lesson learned during a stint as a Catholic seminarian: "Check your ego. Check your own particular interests or desires to get your way."

As a senator, "the only person I have to account to is me, and when the decision is made it's mine. It is a very different environment than if you've got someone above you who gets the final say."

The lieutenant governor's job description in the Maryland Constitution is vague, providing "only the duties delegated to him by the governor." But Steele promised much when he took office in 2003, including a full review of capital punishment in Maryland and more help for minority businesses.

He emphasized his commitment to education reform. To that end, Steele visited nearly 40 schools, taught classes, rode a school bus and talked to more than 1,000 students as part of his research for an education commission he led. The commission produced a 40-page report on improving Maryland's schools.

Del. Nancy J. King (D-Montgomery), a former school board president who served on what became known as the Steele Commission, said she viewed the exercise as little more than a "showcase for the lieutenant governor."

"For all the time people put into this report, nothing substantive has really come out of it," King said.

Robert J. Kemmery, the commission's executive director, said the intent was not to "mandate everything through legislation but to surface ideas." He ticked off 26 of 30 initiatives that he said have been or would be put into action, primarily through the state budget.

Among the recommendations was a call to improve the state's pension system for teachers. Soon after the report was released, Steele invited Patricia Foerster, then president of the Maryland State Teachers Association, to discuss the findings. She expressed concerns about the pension proposal and said Steele promised to follow up with Ehrlich.

"There was no outward evidence that if the conversation happened that it made a difference," Foerster said. "When the governor put out his budget, there was no money included for enhancement."

Lawmakers eventually passed a bill that provided funding, and Ehrlich signed it.

Steele campaign literature says he "worked with legislators" to "make historic improvements" to the pension system. Sen. Edward J. Kasemeyer (D-Howard), the lead lawmaker on the pension bill, said, "I never heard from him."

Steele said this week that he is not taking credit for legislative negotiations. Instead, he said, he quietly pressed the pension issue inside the administration, where there was resistance to the bill's $120 million price tag.

"We ginned up the noise around it," he said, and ultimately changed the perception that it was "fiscally impossible."

In the ballroom of the North Bethesda Marriott last month, Steele greeted the past president of the Baltimore Hispanic Chamber of Commerce with a bear hug. Roberto Allen, a Baltimore lawyer, returned the affection, praising Steele's work on behalf of minority businesses. More than the dollars flowing, Allen said, "the difference is inclusion." Steele "has created a feeling of access and appreciation."

A commission headed by Steele has held government agencies to a stricter standard for tracking minority participation in state contracts. But there are competing interpretations of the numbers.

Wayne Frazier, head of the Maryland-Washington Minority Contractors Association, raised money and rallied fellow Democrats to support Ehrlich and Steele in 2002. Four years later, Frazier said, not one of 200 primarily black-owned member companies has won business from the state. "They failed miserably to deliver," he said. "I was a fool for believing."

A report prepared for the Department of Transportation found that even as more minority companies have become eligible, fewer are getting state contracts. Minority participation dropped from 17 percent of the companies in 2001 to 14.8 percent in 2006.

But Sharon R. Pinder, the governor's special secretary for minority affairs, said a greater share of state contracts is going to minority businesses. The increase was from 15.6 percent in fiscal 2003 to 21 percent in fiscal 2005, according to a report prepared for her office.

In the governor's suite of State House offices, Steele brought to policy discussions the perspectives of an African American, a Washington area resident and a Catholic. His religious objections to the death penalty stood out, policy director Joseph M. Getty said.

"Of all the issues, he was the most forceful on that. He deferred to the governor on decision making, but he made his position known, and I think it did influence the way we treated the issue."

But for three years, Steele was mostly silent on the issue in public, even as Ehrlich approved two executions.

There are some signs that Steele's message of independence has transcended party. He announced endorsements this week from black Democratic political leaders in Prince George's County.

Del. Emmett C. Burns (D-Baltimore County) said: "He's an eye, he's an ear and he's a heart for us in the Republican Party. He may not be able to change policies, but he can come out and tell us what they're doing. In that sense, he will be independent."